


Too Much

by quietmessofafangirl



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Hurt Peter Parker, Parent Tony Stark, Peter calls Tony Dad, Sensory Overload, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-30
Updated: 2018-11-30
Packaged: 2019-09-02 15:51:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16790017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quietmessofafangirl/pseuds/quietmessofafangirl
Summary: When things aren't going too well in PE, Peter has a sensory overload. Now, it's up to Tony to help him.Also posted on Wattpad.





	Too Much

Everything was too loud.

Peter winced as he covered his ears with his hands.

People were yelling at each other. The trainee teachers (who shouldn’t become teachers _at all_ ) were yelling at the students because they couldn’t do the very hard tasks. The students were yelling back at the teachers. And the original PE teacher was just yelling because he could.

Peter shut his eyes. The sounds were getting louder by the second, and his headaches were getting worse.

Ned was absent today, unfortunately. And since no one knew that Peter was Spider-Man, nobody will notice he’s having a sensory overload. And, talking made things worse, so he couldn’t tell anybody.

Peter prayed that someone noticed he was acting strange and told the teacher, but that was going on for ten minutes now, and so far, no one said anything.

It was like the world had suddenly turned its back on him.

He opened his eyes. MJ, who Peter suspected about knowing the truth about his alter-ego, was raising her eyebrows at him from behind her sketch book. (she’s probably drawing him.)

He locked eyes with her, then suddenly the voices got even louder and he winced, he hoped that MJ would somehow understand what’s going on with him and say something to the teacher.

She understood, apparently. She walked to the PE teacher, who was cursing by now, “Excuse me, sir. I think there’s something wrong with Parker.”

The teacher cursed one more time before rolling his eyes and walking towards Peter. Before he asked what’s wrong, though, the bell rang.

Peter almost passed out. The voices weren’t getting any lower nor farther away. And combined with the bell still sounding from the speaker _which had to be right above him_ , _and_ the sounds of breaths and rustling clothes that Peter _shouldn’t_ be able to hear, he felt like he was in hell.

Wait, don’t forget the lights, which became suddenly too bright. Oh, and the stink of sweat.

Peter shut his eyes again and collapsed, curling around himself. He could feel everything he touched, and it hurt even more. The ground underneath him became 10 times rougher. And so did the clothes over his body, which also became worse when he started to shake.

It was _too much_.

He cried out in agony. “Call his aunt!” he heard MJ yell.

“Yeah, no shit,” the teacher, Coach Ford, murmured.

\-----

Tony was in his work shop when the phone rang. He wiped his hands clean and picked it up from the floor. (How’d it get there?)

“Hey, are you Peter Parker’s emergency contact?”

“Yes, this is Tony Stark.”

“To—?” the voice laughed. “God, how much did Parker pay you to answer with that?”

Tony frowned, _what in the—?_

“Never mind,” the voice continued. “I’m Parker’s PE teacher. His aunt is unavailable, so I’m calling you, _Mr. Stark_ ,” he mocked.

“The boy’s having some seizure or somethin’,” he went on, and Tony heart dropped. “He’s curled up on himself, shaking. He’s covering his eyes and ears, too. Oh, and he cried out in pain just now. Dunno what’s wrong with him, and the nurse’s absent.”

“W-When did it start?” Tony’s voice shook.

“Like, ten minutes ago.”

“Were there any loud voices around? Someone yelling suddenly?” _could it be a sensory overload? Peter hadn’t had one for six months._

“Yeah, everybody was. And the shaking started when the bell rang, by the way.”

 _Sensory overload it is_. Tony ran up to Peter’s pent-house room. “I’m coming right now, where’s he?”

“Gym.”

Tony hanged up on the guy. He rushed into the room and grabbed a pair of earphones that he and Peter designed especially for his sensory overloads.

He called his suit, and headed out to Midtown Tech.

\-----

Coach Ford pocketed his phone after the so-called Mr. Stark hung up. He went back into the gym and cursed. Everybody was still yelling.

Being the awesome teacher that he was, he turned to check on Parker.

The boy had passed out while he was out, apparently. An uncharacteristically worried Michelle Jones was sitting next to the liar kid.

He was about to tell her that ‘ _Mr. Stark_ ’ was on his way, but he was rudely interrupted by a window being broken. Ford turned to curse at whoever broke the large window, but he was shocked by what he saw.

 _Iron Man_ flew through the broken window and landed close to Parker.

 _Tony freaking Stark_ appeared as the Bleeding Edge Nano-bots made their way back into the arc reactor on the billionaire’s chest.

He crouched in front of Parker and Coach Ford almost shit himself. The kid hadn’t been lying after all. He really did know Tony Stark, and Stark really was his emergency contact.

\-----

Tony crouched in front of Peter, who was unconscious. He looked up to see MJ, Peter’s ~~girlfriend~~ friend. There were tears in her eyes, “He’ll be fine, right, Tony?”

Tony tried to smile at her, but he didn’t know if he succeeded. “He will, I’ll make sure of it.” he turned his head to face Peter’s class and three teachers, they were all gawking, which was quite expected.

He stood up, “Who’s the one who called me?” he asked sternly.

“M-me?” the teacher standing closest to him squeaked.

Tony fixed an ice-shattering glare that he’d learned from Pepper at the teacher, “I’ll make sure that you’ll pay for thinking that Pete is a liar, understood?” he waited for the man to nod, “Good,” he sniffed, “I’ll take him now, and I’ll call the school secretary later.”

Tony didn’t wait for him to answer. He turned and carried Peter bridal-style, he walked out of the gym and through hallways full of gawking students and out into the street where Happy was waiting with a car. Tony laid Peter on the backseat, and they drove back to the compound.

\-----

Peter woke up that evening to find himself in his room in the pent-house. He was wearing Iron Man pajamas, _of course_ , and he saw his school bag sitting on his desk chair.

“Hey, FRIDAY,” he said, looking up at the ceiling (even though he knew that wasn’t where the AI was, he just liked to do it). “Is Mr. Stark here?”

“Yes, Peter,” FRIDAY replied quietly. “I’ve already informed him that you’re awake. He’ll be up here shortly.”

“No. No need. I’ll go. Where is he?”

“He’s in the workshop.”

Peter stood up and walked out of his bedroom. There was a plate of chocolate-chip cookies on the kitchen counter, Peter took two of them before heading down to the workshop.

Tony was just standing up when Peter walked in the workshop. “Hey, Petey! I was just coming up to you.”

“Yeah, FRI told me,” Tony sat down again and Peter sat on the stool next to him. he offered him a cookie that he inhaled in one second.

Tony stared at Peter, “How’re you feeling, kiddo? That was a tough one you had today.”

“I’m good,” Peter smiled. “Everybody just started yelling suddenly and it became a little too much. But I’m fine now. Thank you.”

Tony ruffled Peter’s hair. He turned to the reactor in his hand, and Peter grinned as he watched him. Not everybody can say that they sat next to _Tony Stark_ and watched him tinkering in sweatpants and …

“ _Are you wearing a Spider-Man shirt?!!_ ”

Tony didn’t pause his working hands for even a millisecond, “Yep!”

“Mr. Stark—I—wow!” Peter stumbled over his words. He grinned widely.

Tony grinned back at him, “You know I love you, kiddo.”

Peter looked down at his Iron Man pajamas, “I love you too, dad.”

…

_Oops?_

Peter’s face flushed red, he looked up at Tony. He’d left the arc reactor on the table and turned to fully face Peter. His grin was even wider now than before, it was like his cheeks were going to be torn.

Tony’s eyes were sparkling, Peter was sure he’d never seen him any happier. He was glad that it was because he called him ‘dad’. He smiled timidly.

Tony ruffled Peter’s hair, “Do you see me as a father figure, kid?”

“Yeah,” Peter shrugged. “I always have, I guess.”

Tony’s Cheshire grin shrunk to a still-big smile as he raised his eyebrows, “How so?”

Peter pursed his lips, trying to sort his thoughts and find words to describe how he felt about his mentor/father-figure. He shrugged again, “I dunno. You’ve always been my hero, especially after that day—”

“What day?”

“Uh, that Stark Expo, when the Hammer Bots became all evil and stuff?”

Tony was surprised, “You were there?”

“Yeah!” Peter grinned as he remembered that day, when he met Iron Man for the first time. “Ben and May took me there, and I was wearing an Iron Man mask and those fake repulsor gloves,” Peter waved his hands as he described, “and then the robots started firing at everybody, and you fought them and all. It was awesome, by the way.

“and then I lost May and Ben somehow, and one of those robots landed in front of me and it was about to blow me to pieces. But instead of running -I was six and I was stupid, don’t judge me- I stood straight and aimed my glove-thingies at it—”

“And then I came beside you and fired at the robot. And I said ‘Good work, kid’…” Tony’s eyes were wide and he looked horrified. He held his forehead, “Holy shit, Pete. I almost lost you and I didn’t know it!” he stood up and wrapped his kid in a hug.

Peter was shocked. “M-Mr. Stark? Are you ok?”

Tony pulled back, “Yeah. Yeah, I’m good.” He stared at Peter for a few seconds. “Hey, do you wanna watch a movie?”

Peter smiled, “Yeah, sure.”

Tony and Peter left the workshop and headed up to the living room. They sat on the couch and Peter turned on the TV. Half an hour passed in silence, which was unusual. Normally, Tony would never stop commenting on any movie they watched.

Peter turned to Tony. He was staring into the void with a scared look on his face.

“Mr. Stark?” No answer.

“Hey, Mr. Stark?” Peter waved his hand in front of Tony’s face, but he still didn’t get a response.

“…Dad?”

Tony gasped as he finally looked at Peter.

“Are you okay?” Peter asked. He was worried, Tony has never acted like this in the two years Peter has known him.

“I—” was all Tony said. His expression didn’t change.

Peter put his hand on Tony’s shoulder, “What’s going on?!”

“ _Dad_ ,” Tony whispered. A tear slipped from his eyes as they locked onto Peter’s, “Am I like my dad?”

“What?”

Tony closed his eyes, “My dad was a _dick_. The only time I heard him say he liked me was through a video eight years ago. I hated him so, so much. _Please tell me I’m not like him_ ,” he begged.

Peter’s eyes widened. He jumped on Tony and hugged him tightly. “ _No!_ Of course not! You’re the best. I couldn’t ask for better.”

Peter pulled back to see Tony crying, he still looked scared, “Please don’t. don’t do this to yourself.”

“Do what?” Tony asked.

“Blame yourself for everything. Seriously, not everything is your fault. Your dad was horrible, that doesn’t mean that it was your fault, or that you’ll be anything short of awesome.”

The scared look escaped Tony’s face and relief took its place. He smiled softly at Peter. “Thanks, kiddie.”

Peter grinned, “You’re welcome.”

Tony wrapped his arm around Peter’s shoulders, and they both turned back to the TV.

\-----

Later that night, Pepper came back home to see Tony and Peter on the couch, snuggled into each other and fast asleep.

(And the cookie plate was empty, BTW.)


End file.
